Tom Brady will return to competitive football, sort of.
The seven-time Super Bowl winning quarterback was announced on Monday as the headliner for a new flag football event featuring both active and retired NFL players that will take place March 21, 2026 — in Saudi Arabia.
According to Fanatics, the sports merchandiser partly behind the event, Brady will make his "first official return to the field" since retirement by taking part in a three-team round-robin tournament to be broadcast by FOX Sports and played under the same five-on-five format to be used when flag football makes its Olympics debut in 2028, on a 50-yard field. Whether that means Brady will officially be throwing passes for the first time since 2023 wasn't explicitly spelled out. But each team will be coached by an active NFL coach: Las Vegas' Pete Carroll, Denver's Sean Payton and San Francisco's Kyle Shanahan.
Active NFL players Christian McCaffrey of San Francisco, Sauce Gardner of the New York Jets, CeeDee Lamb of Dallas, Saquon Barkley of Philadelphia, Myles Garrett of Cleveland, Tyreek Hill of Miami and Brock Bowers and Maxx Crosby of Las Vegas all were announced as taking part, though how much each would participate on the field in the offseason event was not detailed.
The Saudi Arabia-backed event is co-organized by Turki Al-Sheikh, the chairman of the country’s General Entertainment Authority, and is the latest piece of sports real estate bearing the imprint of the 44-year-old.
He has spearheaded a campaign by the ruling Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to help soften the country’s image on the world stage with numerous entries into global sports, from the creation of LIV Golf, a competitor to the top U.S. men's golf tour, to the country's 2021 takeover of the Premier League soccer club Newcastle through a sovereign wealth fund. The Women's Tennis Association will hold its season-ending final in Riyadh in November. Human-rights organizations have criticized the high-profile investments in sports as trying to distract from the country's human rights record, a practice described as "sportswashing."
Al-Sheikh's involvement in sports to this point has been largely limited to combat sports, with The Athletic describing him earlier this year as "boxing's most powerful figure." Last year, Al-Sheikh, who had already served as matchmaker for huge bouts, also purchased one of the sport's oldest media outlets, The Ring magazine. Al-Sheikh, along with UFC President Dana White, helped promote the Canelo Alvarez-Terence Crawford megafight on Netflix on Saturday.
Now, Saudi Arabia will serve as a backdrop for flag football as the sport gains more relevance ahead of its Olympic debut. When NFL owners approved active NFL players to take part in the Olympics during a spring vote, the green light drew hearty approval from players across the league.
Brady and Al-Sheikh stood together on the field inside the Las Vegas stadium earlier Monday to announce the deal.
The famously competitive Brady did not seem ready to treat the event as a stakes-free exhibition.
“I will be bringing home the trophy,” Brady said in a prepared statement.
